Emily Lian uses her love of nature and imagination when painting wildlife and it shows. The 17-year-old Bethany resident’s colorful image of an orange-billed king eider won first place in the national Junior Duck Stamp art contest. She is the first Oregon student to earn the top prize in the contest that started three decades ago and attracts about 25,000 students in kindergarten-12th grades from across the country each year.
Emily’s original oil painting of a king eider floating on water, its head tilted up as other ducks fly against a blue sky, has been reproduced as the 2024-2025 Junior Duck Stamp, which is for sale for $5.